American Automakers Are Winning Back Crucial Young Buyers

Alex DaviesFord bills the new Fiesta as a fun car for young buyers.The number of young people buying cars in the US is plummeting, but potential drivers ages 18-34 — aka millennials — still represent a crucial market for automakers.

A new study from Edmunds and R.L. Polk has good news for Detroit: The youth market, long dominated by Japan, is jumping ship.

In 2008, Japanese brands — including Toyota, Nissa, and Honda — accounted for 52.3 percent of new car registrations by drivers 18 to 24 years old, and 50.6 percent of registrations by 25- to 34-year-old drivers.

In 2012, those numbers slumped nearly 10 percent, to 42.6 percent and 42.9 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, American brands made solid progress, improving their market share by nearly nearly 2 percent.

But the real jump was by South Korean brands, who picked up most of the buyers who no longer want Japanese cars: Their share of the group rose more than 10 percent.

Everyone is going after the youth market: Lincoln created a Super Bowl ad featuring Jimmy Fallon reading tweets. Mercedes-Benz believes the Smart car is great for young buyers (along with urbanites and the "forward-thinking").

Ford is tempting first-time car buyers with the Fiesta, a 1.0-liter engined car that's a lot of fun to drive. Cadillac — with a reputation for having the oldest drivers around — says first-time luxury buyers are key to its resurgence.

But Kia and Hyundai are beating them all.